Food Microbiology

The interest in establishing scientific credibility for probiotic effects is of high importance to companies and scientists. Research to support health will have to take into account the intestinal microbiota and its interaction with the host. One of the reasons that raised skepticism in the field is the vast array of health benefits attributed to Lactic acid bacteria strains especially and the variety or diversity of experimental approaches. The recently developed molecular techniques will certainly help in acquiring a better understanding of the complex interaction between the gut ecosystem and the probiotic strain. A multidisciplinary approach, combining molecular taxonomy and biology,  immunology, modern microbial ecology, physiology, gastroenterology and biochemistry, will be necessary to gain knowledge in the crosstalk that most certainly takes place between the the host cells and intestinal microbes. While unraveling of the mechanism of action may greatly facilitate future selection of novel probiotic strains with a specific health benefit, any postulated effects will have to be definitely proven by well-conducted clinical studies. This might be easier to achieve when targeting the improvement of pathological situations.